I have lots of idea's bubbling away at the back of my mind, bursting to get out and be developed. I thought I would share some of the development of these projects for the benefit of the inquisitive, rather than just creating them and shelving the completed projects in readiness for one day when I have a huge layout to fit them all on! So I will document the research and experimentation, warts and all, for your delectation.

Latest idea, very quickly thrown together as soon as my "stock" of neo magnets turned up.

Brass tube and a little magnet lost in the bluetack (will be lost under a seat and someone sitting on it)

Playgroung swing.jpg (54.04 KiB) Viewed 1564 times

The idea is to mount the rotating magnet motor and gearbox below the baseboard, I originaly thought I would have to cut a large hole and cover with thin plastic so the magnets could be close, however, the rare earth magnets are so strong, I think it may work directly under 12mm ply!

Next on the list is a working playground roundabout. Just running it seemed a little to simple and unrealistic, so i developed a little circuit (very simple) to allow a little acceleration and a long deceleration. I could power it with PWM from my PC lighting system, but would prefer to keep that for lights and just run animation models from a separate 5v bus. I will eventually connect to a timer (10 secs on/110 secs off) or may yet drive from the lighting supply

Thanks Atso, but your easily impressed! Personally, I was much more impressed with the magic swing! lolI still have to paint/mark planks on it, maybe use brass rod and bring away from the surface. I will definitely make more and refine the detail, it was more a test of the electronics to gauge the speed and deceleration than anything else.Further details:-I will make a bracket to hold under board and poke the shaft that's attached to the planetary motor and gearbox, through a hole. The roundabout is cunningly made with a brass tube up the middle, so will just 'drop' onto the shaft (not fixed), This means its easy to fit and maintain.

Atso wrote:I'm impressed by the whole lot and not so 'easily' as there is obviously a lot of thought, work and skill gone into making those work.

Certainly some thought, to be honest, not a lot of work and very little skill. As a professional (design) Engineer, I don't consider it hard, as it's just "what I do", the benefit of 30 years of experience, makes it seem easy to me. What impresses me, is skills that I don't have, like 3D printing and hand painting lines etc. I would love to get into 3D printing, and know enough about it, to know I would only be happy with a £2,000 plus printer! The cost is not even the problem, it's the surefire knowledge that it would take over everything (all consuming hobby) that would totally detract from my current interests!I have the same issue with CNC, I would love one, again probably at least £800 worth, then add the laser cutter, then the water jet cutter......it would never end!

Therefor it will not start, I will leave to others and drool over their offerings......impressed by their skills.....and put in a few "wow's" of my own for their efforts.....yours and Timbologist's being ones that come to mind

Lumsdonia <--- Hit link to go to my website for full story and wiring advice!

You buy those beautiful delicate scale lights, you spend for ever stringing them all in parallel with resistors under the layout, you stand back and admire the great job, while scrutinizing the the new pools of light, you notice some other new anomaly and dive in to fix it. What was that, that just tickled your elbow???

B%^&*cks .

You have just destroyed all your hard work, by sideswiping a new lamp that wasn't there an hour ago!!! If they are anywhere near scale, they are incredibly delicate and just begging to get a bashing!

I have often pondered using 3.5mm jack plugs (or even better for scale, 2.5mm). Quick disconnect for maintenance on the layout (if you remember to take them out) but the jack socket will have to be glued in, making the lamp rigid and the danger of bending the lamp post or jack plug is still a risk.So I came up with an alternative, for ease of maintenance and inbuilt rigidity, anti-vibration and bend resistance!

Basically mount the post on a spring!Not very pleasing to the eye or prototypical, so a little lateral thinking lead to rubber.

This then jumped to a fixing system that is tapered, so fits snuggly, can rotate when required to set correct attitude and is readily removable. I will solder a connector to each lamp so that once pulled up, I can detach without going under the board, this is possible, because the hole for the bung is around 6mm in diameter!

Demonstration

The Lamp assembly

Assembled lamp just pushes into a pre-drilled hole a little smaller than post, leave the rubber test tube bung in the freezer to make it easier to drill and ensure drill is "square" as you drill the hole

The tools

A taper hole cutter or a step cutter can be used, just keep trying till the bung fits tightly with the top flush with the board

Another ingenious side effect, is that your base board thickness makes no difference! This works on any depth (beyond 3/4in, just drill a 6mm hole through the rest)

Lumsdonia <--- Hit link to go to my website for full story and wiring advice!

The main body of the roundabout is a cast of herculite plaster (hard as marble) with a brass rod embedded in it. Rather than being made from cardboard or plasticard, it has a bit of mass, so is less inclined to be jerky.Cheap and cheerful and highly replicable. (I'll add it to my list of saleable items for my future ambition for a mail order shop)Next up will be a seesaw, but I need a bit of flat brass or steel for the beam, I need to scrabble through my bits to find the right size.

Lumsdonia <--- Hit link to go to my website for full story and wiring advice!